'Great dignity'

Quietly spoken but firm in his opinions, Sam Foster has been described as a man of courtesy and integrity by politicians from across the spectrum.

In 1987, Mr Foster was on the scene of the Enniskillen Remembrance Day bombing and pulled survivors from the rubble immediately after the IRA attack.

A decade later as chairman of Fermanagh Council he welcomed the then Taoiseach John Bruton despite criticism from the DUP.

Mr Foster had Parkinson's disease and retired from the assembly in 2003, but retained a keen interest in current affairs, welcoming the G8 summit when world leaders visited his beloved Fermanagh last summer.

"Sam was the living embodiment of a loyal Ulster Unionist who served his country and his party faithfully for many decades and was held in the highest of esteem by all."

Another former party leader, Tom Elliott, ‏said Mr Foster had been a "long-standing, faithful and loyal member" of the party.

Mr Foster took over as environment minister in 1999 during the era of stop-start devolution.

He visited Belfast's Black Mountain together with the Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, and attended a peace rally with the then Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble after the loyalist murder of a postal worker in 2002.

Respected

In 2002, Mr Foster received a CBE for political and public service. He was related to the husband of Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster.

The DUP minister said it was no secret she did not always agree on politics with her Ulster Unionist relative, but she always respected and admired the style of a man she and her family would remember as a "very dear uncle".